New York City

Hisham Matar was born in New York City, while his father was working for the Libyan Mission to the United Nations. While he only lived there for a few years before returning to Libya, Matar currently shares his residence between NYC and London. He admits that he has always had a romantic admiration for the city, confessing "it meant nothing to me but also everything" (14). He recalls dreaming as a child of the day he could live there and tell people that he was from New York, and "such a statement would be both true and false, like a magic trick" (5).

Benghazi

Matar stays in Benghazi for a majority of his trip to Libya, noticing that the the city "seemed to belong to [him] alone" (105). While he had family ties and memories associated with other cities like Ajdabiya and Tripoli, Benghazi seemed the only place...